


Sic itur ad astra

by princessofmind



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Harvest Moon AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-14
Updated: 2014-09-14
Packaged: 2018-02-17 10:24:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2306321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princessofmind/pseuds/princessofmind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Holy shit,” you breathe, and it’s almost scary how tiny you feel at that moment.  You’ve never been a very spiritual person, or the kind of person who gives much thought to their great cosmic insignificance, but suddenly you feel like a grain of sand on the beach, and the only thing anchoring you to this tiny planet, whizzing around in space, always spinning on it’s delicate axis, is Eridan’s hand on your arm.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sic itur ad astra

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lightingupthereef](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=lightingupthereef).



> Inspired by [these](http://lightingupthereef.tumblr.com/post/96900975196/more-harvest-moon-wizard-eri-from-this-pic) [two](http://lightingupthereef.tumblr.com/post/96923793751/cmon-sollux-hes-at-10-hearts) pictures by [lightingupthereef](http://lightingupthereef.tumblr.com/).

“You _what_?”

Eridan almost drops the teacup he’s bringing to his lips, eyebrows furrowed and a stricken look on his face. There’s a faint tremble in his hands when he replaces the fine china on it’s saucer with a gentle clink, and you’re starting to seriously reconsider the emotion behind the pitcher you’re here to return.

“Uh. I asked if you’d like to go on a date.” There’s an uncomfortable pause. “With me. A date with me.”

You’re not exactly the smoothest guy in town. In fact, and argument could be made that you’re the _least_ smooth guy in town. Even the reclusive doctor and the snobby mayor’s son have more tact and grace than you, which has suddenly made itself blindingly apparent once more. You’d thought that maybe Eridan was well enough aware of this fact to not expect a romantic, well thought out invitation, since he’d just seemed amused when you stammered all over yourself when presented with his gift of homemade vegetable juice when you’d been feeling under the weather a week or so ago.

But he’s squinting at you from behind his lenses, which is a look usually reserved for foraging for mushrooms in the forest or when faced with an especially complex spell, and you take to picking at one of the calluses on your palm under his scrutinizing gaze.

“Did you have something in mind?”

Your head snaps up, mouth suddenly dry despite the sweet tang still spreading over your tongue from the tea. “Uh. Well I didn’t....actually quite get that far.”

His thin lips curve into a smile, and your heart promptly melts into a hot puddle in your chest. He’s so, so unfairly beautiful. The way his purple forelock constantly falls in front of his glasses, how he keeps his nails trimmed meticulously to keep him from biting them, how he always smells like damp moss and prickling electricity, it’s all perfect. You’ve been positively smitten since you glimpsed him in the general store, shoulders hunched nervously as Barbara prattled on, oblivious to his nerves and discomfort.

“I shoulda figured that you wouldn’t have the foresight to actually plan an activity to do,” Eridan says, shaking his head and taking a sip from his cup. “What were you thinkin’, we were gonna groom the cows while enjoying conversation? Honestly. I’m more cultured than that.”

Your cheeks are flushed so red they almost hurt, and you kind of want to crawl under the table and wonder how you forgot that you’re just a loser trying to figure out how to farm as best you can and he’s some ethereal magical being who, for all you know, could be hundreds of years old.

“But,” his fins flick, and his eyes sparkle with amusement, “I think I could do all the hard work for you. How about you meet me outside the church at dusk?”

Of course, you agree. Trading in your overalls for slacks and a nicer shirt, you’re practically brimming with nerves once you’ve finished your evening chores and lit the lanterns at the gate so you’re not stumbling back in the dark. It’s quiet at this time, with most of the townsfolk tucked away in their houses, enjoying time with their family or eating a late supper. You haven’t been here long, but it’s starting to feel familiar, like home. And while you didn’t ever expect yourself to be satisfied with hard labor, there’s a level of problem solving that reminds you of what you enjoyed about your time as an engineer in the city.

You climb the stairs to the church plaza, and notice that the lanterns have all been extinguished, and all the light is coming from the moon starting to make it’s journey across the sky. Eridan is little more than a silhouette in the darkness, but when you get closer, you can see that he’s traded out his ornate purple coat for something grey and heavier, since it’s starting to get chilly in the evening now. And next to him is a contraption that you’d seen, but never had the opportunity to use (and that looks a hell of a lot nicer too).

“Stargazing?” you ask with a grin, and while his hands are on his hips in a gesture of pride, there’s a bit of trepidation as well.

“Yes,” he said, gesturing at the shining silver with all the knobs and perfectly polished glass. “It’s the perfect time of year for it. Cool, but not freezing, and the moon isn’t quite full enough to wash the stars out, but it gives us enough light that we’re not tripping all over each other and breaking my equipment.”

“Is this something you enjoy, or is it like, part of your spells and stuff?”

Eridan snorts, rolling his eyes and pushing his glasses up to rest on top of his head, turning his gaze to the heavens. “My magic comes from everything, and that includes the stars and the moon and even the sun. But tonight, I’m just here to enjoy myself. No spells or experimenting or note taking.”

“Is that a promise?” you tease, because it seems like he always has that pocket-sized leather notebook in his hands, jotting down notes or muttering to himself the moment an idea comes to him. He’s eccentric, for sure, and while it scares a lot of people away, you mostly find it profoundly endearing.

“Yes, Sol, it’s a promise,” he sighs, almost tripping over the telescope before he steadies himself, tilting it and orienting it in the right direction, having to pull his glasses up and down whenever he changes from looking through the lens to looking at the sky. “Now come here, let me educate you.”

You try not to blush when he rests his hand in the crook of your arm when you take his place, peering through the eyepiece at what he’s pointed it at. The dot is tan, not as bright as a star like you were expecting, shot through with wisps of red and cream. “Is this a planet?” you ask, trying not to sound surprised.

“It’s Jupiter,” he answers, his hand warm even through the flannel of your shirt. “Of all the planets, it’s the easiest to see both through a telescope and with the naked eye, since it’s the biggest. It just looks like a dim, red star without the use of the telescope, but this one is powerful enough that if you’re patient, you might be able to see the Great Red Spot.”

“Holy shit,” you breathe, and it’s almost scary how tiny you feel at that moment. You’ve never been a very spiritual person, or the kind of person who gives much thought to their great cosmic insignificance, but suddenly you feel like a grain of sand on the beach, and the only thing anchoring you to this tiny planet, whizzing around in space, always spinning on it’s delicate axis, is Eridan’s hand on your arm.

It’s quiet, then. You can hear the last of the summer’s crickets chirping in the foliage behind you, Eridan’s quiet breathing, and the faint shift of the wind as you stare into the telescope with such focus that it makes your eyes water. If he gets bored of waiting, he says nothing, just keeps his head tilted back, jewel-bright eyes lidded as he observes what must be familiar shapes and constellations in the sky above.

And then, just from the other side of the sphere, you see something shifting, something spinning, and Eridan must feel how your breath catches and all your muscles tense, because he starts speaking again. “The Great Red Spot can fit three Earths within it’s boundaries. It’s existed for over four hundred years, and takes about six days to do a full rotation of the planet.”

“Is this a date, or a science lesson?” you ask, but there’s a breathless tone to your voice, and it’s so quiet that you swear you can hear him smile.

“Be nice, or I won’t show you any constellations.”

“Oh, horror upon horrors, how would I ever survive?”

He slugs you in the shoulder. “Shut up and look up.”

The sky is dizzyingly clear above you, and there’s a milkiness to it that you wouldn’t be able to see in the city. You know that it’s the Milky Way, the stardust that makes up your galaxy, and it’s abhorrent that you’ve never noticed it until tonight. “If you look right there,” he has his glasses off again, and is leaning so close that your faces touch so that your fields of vision are almost the same as he points, “you can see Orion. In my experience, he’s the easiest to show first timers. There’s his head, and his shoulders, and there’s his belt.”

While you don’t see anything fantastical in the space between the stars, you can make out the crude shape of a man and his belt, with a small star to the side almost like the point of a sword. “Looks kind of like a stick figure.”

“Well, back then, people didn’t have much more to occupy themselves with at night,” he says, rolling his eyes. “But do you see that star there? The one that looks like his sword? It’s actually the first star in another constellation.” Carefully taking your hand in his own, he moves your finger in a curve like an S, up and down smoothly almost like you’re dancing. “That’s Eridanus. The constellation I was named after.”

[(Art by lightingupthereef)](http://lightingupthereef.tumblr.com/post/97846607766/colored-a-scene-from-princessofminds-story)

You know that you’re one of the very few people in town who actually know his name (everyone else just calls him the Wizard), and to be shown the origin of it just feels even more wrenchingly intimate. But of course, you’re an idiot, and you have no idea what that squiggle is even supposed to be. A snake would be stupid, because you can’t imagine anything being further from his personality, but what else is there. “Uh...what exactly _is_ it?”

“It’s a river,” he says, snickering. “I know, wouldn’a guessed that based on how it’s just a big squiggle, right? But it’s also the water bein’ poured from Aquarius’s jug, which is....there.”

And half of the constellations don’t make sense to you. You have no idea how to see a fish in Pisces or the dogs in Canis Major or Minor. Everything just kind of runs together after a while, but just to make sure, you always find Orion again, following the tip of his sword to the Eridanus river, flowing through the night sky and down to the man resting comfortably against you. He seems so animated like this, cloaked in darkness with his glasses glinting on his forehead, fingers cold against your rough skin and his breath starting to show in puffs against the velvet black.

“I think your lips are turning blue,” you murmur, drawing his attention away from the stars for the first time that evening and drawing attention to how he’s shivering slightly despite the warmth of his coat and your body pressed against his.

His eyelashes are so long against his cheeks, eyes like untouched amethysts, and you never noticed the faintest hint of freckles on the skin of his nose until you got so close. “Warm them up, then,” he says softly, fins fanned and flushed to show his embarrassment despite how steady his voice is.

So you do, and you can practically taste the starlight on his tongue, a thousand untapped universes hidden in his chest, and there’s the faintest hint of something rare and infinitely precious there in your arms, huddling against your chest for warmth. But you’re just a simple farmer, and the unraveling of these strings are probably best left to him, so you cradle his face in your hands and ground him, warm him, and remind him that while the infinities and limitlessness of magic is ever tempting and present, sometimes the best things in life are simple, and physical, and human.


End file.
